Sunday, November 21, 2010

Growing up I was always a little more mature than most kids. As a preteen I was watching shows that had a lot of adult situations. My parents tried to monitor what I watched, or at least my Mom did. My Dad never really cared what I watched. For instance he took me to see Bad Boys 2 in theatres. At the time I was about 12 or 13. The only reason I was at all uncomfortable was because I was watching it with my Dad. On the other hand my Mom wouldn't let me watch 8 Mile and to this day is upset that my Dad let me watch it.

As a younger child I didn't really watch anything to bad. Mostly I was outside or cleaning (big neat freak). In fact I don't remember watching TV much as a young adult at all. So it didn't affect much of my viewing habits now. I guess I have always been drawn to mysteries and adult points of view/situations.

Many people see TV ratings that are often presented in TV programs and always before movies. I know that not many people pay them any regard unless it's an rated R program, and they have particularly young children in the house. I know from personal experience that not many parents pay any real attention to this. My parents never seemed too. I remember being 12 years old and watching American Pie. I remember when an R rated movie would come out I wouldn't worry too much because I knew I could con my parents into renting it or buying it.
The biggest problem I have heard from people about the TV ratings is that a lot of PG-13 movies can be worse than R movies. The parents that DO trust the ratings have been upset that their children can go to a movie theatre in a trusted manner and coming out seeing more violent/sexual images than some R movies. This didn't surprise me because even some of my friends commented on this issue, and I agreed with them. Not that any of us were complaining, we just thought that it was particularly funny.